Walking around Westminster

Judging by the title you may have guessed that I have been walking around Westminster recently. I have been there before on my ‘Photograph three iconic London buildings’ jaunt last year when I nearly passed out climbing the Monument.

I used an App on my Android phone to find the relative time of the sunset in London. It said around 17.48. I surmised that would be the time it actually set so I headed out to get there about 30 minutes before. Exiting Westminster underground I came up directly underneath Big Ben, it wasn’t bonging yet.

I first took a few snaps of Big Ben then headed north to get a few shots of Westminster Abbey and a couple of other buildings. Lots of statues around there. Noting that the sun was dipping and the light was fading a bit, I walked across the bridge and found myself amongst a lot of other photographers with their lenses all pointing at the Houses of Parliament.

Hoping they knew something I didn’t, I waited to see if any would happen. A Chinook helicopter flew over head but that was it. Walking up to the river wall I snapped off a few shots, and a massive 16 shot panorama encompassing the sky, river and the Houses of Parliament. The whole shot was over 4 gig if saved as a TIF file. Had to cut some out anyway after it was stitched together.

I noticed one couple next to me taking the same shot. I also noticed the husband looking on nervously as his wife pushed the camera along the wall closer to the edge… until he said ‘might be a good idea to wear the camera strap’… yes I was there ready to take a shot of their horrified faces as £500’s worth of equipment takes an unscheduled dunk into the Thames.

Turning from the Housed of Parliament I crossed back over the bridge, still on the south side stopped to take a few shots of the London Eye. It was lit up with blue lights which worked will against a building which was lit up red, although in the final process I desaturated the colours and replace it with subtle shades instead.I moved on passed the London Dungeon and noticed more people putting their phones and cameras in jeopardy by pushing them to the brink of a water and very expensive death along the river bank. I came to the London Eye. There were blue lights strung around the trees on the way up to the ride so I took a shot of the row of trees with the London Eye in the background.Moving on towards Embankment Bridge I took a few shots of a merry go round, which I instantly thought would look good as a black and white, and finally the stairs going up to the bridge itself. I waited for a train to pass along side to add a bit more to the photo.I must return there again with my tripod and try some long exposures to flatten out the Thames and to see if I can take a daytime photo with all the people on the streets blurred out!You can see the shots here.LITF